He was in the same clothes for 36 days, save the one time he changed his socks. Too dangerous to stand up and change pants, he says, or raise an arm into a clean shirt. He took a hit in his legs and stomach and was among the “walking wounded” but managed to avoid evacuation, with help from a little morphine and a lot of that determination.

"Iron Mike" Mervosh is in the back row center, directly in front of the tall man in the back, in a photo of Charlie Company, 24th Marines, 4th Division, at Iwo Jima. (Mike Mervosh)

"Iron Mike" Mervosh is in the back row center, directly in front of the tall man in the back, in a photo of Charlie Company, 24th Marines, 4th Division, at Iwo Jima. (Mike Mervosh)

“I told my company commander I wasn't going to leave my men.”

He says he can't remember what his wife says five minutes later but can remember every moment on Iwo Jima, his fourth invasion of the war, even dreams about it.

“Lots of it is horrible,” he says. The reality was, too.

“One day, the enemy's coming at me, the guy has his saber out to lob my head off and my rifle jams. My BAR (Browning Automatic Rifle) man was behind me. He'd been on the island about an hour and a half. He yells, 'Those are Japs!'And I yell back at him 'Yes, you, SOB, kill them,' and he mowed them down. About 20 minutes later, he was shot and killed.”

And there was the young lieutenant, who had been on Iwo Jima for three days, Mervosh's seventh company commander in two weeks.

“He got hit and his brains came out. On instinct, I pushed them back in.” He saw mutilated Marines, decapitated Marines, more carnage than he has the time or desire to go into. Through it all, he says, it was adrenaline that motivated him.

“Fear is hopelessness. I was angry.”

He made it home and continued what would be an illustrious career in the Corps, serving in Korea and Vietnam. He's put much of his memorabilia – including that saber intended to decapitate him – in the NCO clubs at Camp Pendleton and Camp LeJeune, each of which has an “Iron” Mike Room. When asked about his medals, he refers to the five he considers most important, the ones he brought back from Iwo Jima – two legs, two arms, his head.

But don't call him a survivor.

“No, the Japanese were the survivors,” he said firmly. “I'm a conqueror.”